Changing Windows XP Boot Partition

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steve Hartley
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Steve Hartley

After having problems with an old XP installation I installed it on my slave
hard disk but now I want to use this one as my master and the old one as an
empty hard drive. After initially having this problem someone on here said I
would need to swap the discs around (which Ive done) and use the XP bootdisc
to go through a repair installation.

This is where the problem lies. If I select this option it simply takes me
to the DOS prompt on the appropriate drive and I dont know what to do from
here.

The only other choice seems to be to reinstall windows but this seems
pointless as its already on my new master drive and doing so might delete My
Documents as the warning screen indicates.

I thought simply making the drive the Master would make it the boot disc but
obviously this seems not to be the case. Any help with this matter would be
gratefully appreciated. Ta in advance.
 
Does the slave drive have a bootable flag on its partition?

To enable it go to:

Start > Control Panel > Administrative tools > Computer Management

Select Drive Management and right click on the partition that you want to
make bootable, ensure that you select "Make Partition Active". Then you can
swap the slave for the master drive.

HTH
 
Does the slave drive have a bootable flag on its partition?

Dont know
To enable it go to:

Start > Control Panel > Administrative tools > Computer Management

Select Drive Management and right click on the partition that you want to
make bootable, ensure that you select "Make Partition Active". Then you can
swap the slave for the master drive.
Click to expand...

Dont suppose there is anyway I can do this from dos to save me swapping the
drives back over?

Once I make it bootable will I be able to format the old master/unused drive
which will now be the slave?
 
Straight from the MS Helpfile :)


1 Open Command Prompt.
2 Type:
diskpart
3 At the DISKPART prompt, type:
list partition
4 Make note of the number of the partition that you want to mark as active.
At the DISKPART prompt, type:
select partition n
5 Select the partition, n, you want to mark as active.
At the DISKPART prompt, type:
"active"

Important
DiskPart verifies only that the partition is capable of containing an
operating system's startup files. DiskPart does not check the contents of
the partition. If you mistakenly mark a partition as "active" and it does
not contain the operating system's startup files, your computer might not
start.
ValueDescription
list partitionDisplays the partitions listed in the partition table of the
current disk.
select partitionSelects the specified partition and gives it focus. If no
partition is specified, the select command lists the current partition with
focus.
activeOn basic disks, marks the partition with focus as active. This informs
the basic input/output system (BIOS) or Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI)
that the partition or volume is a valid system partition or system volume.
Only partitions can be marked as active.

Notes
To open a command prompt, click Start, point to All Programs, point to
Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators
group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to
a network, network policy settings might also prevent you from completing
this procedure.
You cannot mark a logical drive as active.
You can only mark a partition as active on a master boot record (MBR) disk.
A computer can only have one active partition per disk.
Changing or deleting an active partition might cause your computer not to
start.
The names commonly used for partitions containing the startup and operating
system files are system and boot partitions, respectively.
The system partition must be a primary partition that has been marked as
active for startup purposes and must be located on the disk that the
computer accesses when starting up the system. There can be only one active
system partition on a disk at a time. You can have multiple basic disks and
each can have one active partition. However the computer will only start
from one specific disk. If you want to use another operating system, you
must first mark its system partition as active before restarting the
computer.
The system partition can never be part of a striped volume, spanned volume,
or RAID-5 volume.
You cannot mark an existing dynamic volume as active. However, you can
convert a basic disk containing the active partition to a dynamic disk. Once
the disk is converted, the partition becomes a simple volume that is active.
If the active partition is not the current system or boot partition it
becomes a simple volume and loses its entry in the partition table, so it
can no longer be active.
 
Well I thought Id make it easier so I swapped the drives back around and
went to the drive management option but the 'Mark as Active' option was
ghosted.

When I booted my computer because I have the remains of the old operating
system on my other drive it asks me which operating system I'd like to use
so it boots to it but its the D drive. I want it to be the C: and to boot
straight up so I can format the old disc as at the moment the boot files are
taking up valuable space.

Just in case Im babbling heres the score just to clarify:

C: XP Home (corrupt version, most files missing) I want to make this the
slave and format completely.

D: XP Pro (new install but will not boot when made as the master) I want
this as boot disc.

They are both on the same Dual IDE cable with the Master the primary.
 
Reading through that last post helped clarify a few things although I must
concede I started to lose when it started going on about dynamic drives. I
did however understand what it said about one drive being the 'System'
drive.

I need to make my other 'Boot' drive into the system drive but how do I do
this? I cant actually boot the operating system on the 'System' disk so is
this the cause of my problems.

If I just connect my 'Boot' disc as the master and use the XP disc to
reinstall xp over the top without formatting, will this solve my problem and
could I just later then add my old 'System' disc and format as a new disc?
 
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